James Andrews Beard (May 5, 1903 – January 23, 1985) was an American chef, cookbook author, teacher and television personality.
He published more than twenty books, and his memory is honored by his foundation's annual James Beard awards. ==Early life and education== === Family === James Andrews Beard was born in Portland, Oregon, on May 5, 1903 to Elizabeth and John Beard.
The family vacationed on the Pacific coast in Gearhart, Oregon, where Beard was exposed to Pacific Northwest cuisine. Common ingredients of this cuisine are salmon, shellfish, and other fresh seafood; game meats such as moose, elk, or venison; mushrooms, berries, small fruits, potatoes, and wild plants such as fiddleheads or young pushki (Heracleum maximum, or cow parsnip). Beard's earliest memory of food was at the 1905 Lewis and Clark Exposition, when he was two years old.
He was expelled for homosexuality in 1922, having had relationships with "one or more male students and a professor." However the college granted Beard an [degree] in 1976. After leaving Reed, he traveled from Portland to Liverpool aboard a British freighter, spending subsequent years living and traveling in Europe.
In 1923, he joined a theatrical troupe and studied voice and theater.
In 1927 he returned to the US, spending time in Portland, Hollywood, and New York attempting to start a career in acting, costume and set design, and radio. ==Career== Beard moved to New York City in 1937.
In 1927 he returned to the US, spending time in Portland, Hollywood, and New York attempting to start a career in acting, costume and set design, and radio. ==Career== Beard moved to New York City in 1937.
This led to lecturing, teaching, writing, and the realization "that part of his mission [as a food connoisseur] was to defend the pleasure of real cooking and fresh ingredients against the assault of the Jell-O-mold people and the domestic scientists." He published his first cookbook in 1940: Hors D'Oeuvre and Canapés, a compilation of his catering recipes.
Because he had hoped to serve in the hotel management division of the Army Quartermaster Corps, he sought and obtained release from the Army in 1943 based on a regulation applying to men over age 38. From August 1946 to May 1947, he hosted I Love to Eat, a live television cooking show on NBC, beginning his ascent as an American food authority.
Because he had hoped to serve in the hotel management division of the Army Quartermaster Corps, he sought and obtained release from the Army in 1943 based on a regulation applying to men over age 38. From August 1946 to May 1947, he hosted I Love to Eat, a live television cooking show on NBC, beginning his ascent as an American food authority.
Because he had hoped to serve in the hotel management division of the Army Quartermaster Corps, he sought and obtained release from the Army in 1943 based on a regulation applying to men over age 38. From August 1946 to May 1947, he hosted I Love to Eat, a live television cooking show on NBC, beginning his ascent as an American food authority.
He was a tireless traveler, bringing his message of good food, honestly prepared with fresh, wholesome, American ingredients, to a country just becoming aware of its own culinary heritage." Beard brought French cooking to the American middle and upper classes during the 1950s, appearing on TV as a cooking personality.
He compares Dione Lucas' cooking show and school with Beard's, noting that their prominence during the 1950s marked the emergence of a sophisticated, New York-based, nationally and internationally known food culture.
Kamp wrote, "It was in this decade [the 1950s] that Beard made his name as James Beard, the brand name, the face and belly of American gastronomy." He noted that Beard met Alice B.
According to Child, "Through the years he gradually became not only the leading culinary figure in the country, but 'The Dean of American Cuisine'." In 1952, when Helen Evans Brown published her Helen Brown's West Coast Cook Book, Beard wrote her a letter igniting a friendship that lasted until Brown's death.
It contained excerpts from Beard's bi-weekly correspondence from 1952 to 1964 with friend and fellow chef Helen Evans Brown.
Beard and Brown became like siblings, admonishing and encouraging each other, as well as collaborating. According to the James Beard Foundation website, "In 1955, he established The James Beard Cooking School.
Barrows & Co., revised in 1963 and 1985 Cook It Outdoors (1941) M.
It contained excerpts from Beard's bi-weekly correspondence from 1952 to 1964 with friend and fellow chef Helen Evans Brown.
He was expelled for homosexuality in 1922, having had relationships with "one or more male students and a professor." However the college granted Beard an [degree] in 1976. After leaving Reed, he traveled from Portland to Liverpool aboard a British freighter, spending subsequent years living and traveling in Europe.
According to Thomas McNamee, "Beard, a man of stupendous appetites—for food, sex, money, you name it—stunned his subtler colleagues." In 1981, Beard and friend Gael Greene founded Citymeals-on-Wheels, which continues to help feed the homebound elderly in New York City. ==Personal life== Julia Child summed up Beard's personal life: Beard was the quintessential American cook.
I think it's time to talk about that now." Beard came out in 1981, in Delights and Prejudices, a revised version of his memoir.
James Andrews Beard (May 5, 1903 – January 23, 1985) was an American chef, cookbook author, teacher and television personality.
A man who was born a hundred years ago on the other side of the country, in a city, Portland, that at the time was every bit as cosmopolitan as, say, Allegheny, Pennsylvania. James Beard died of [failure] on January 21, 1985 at his home in New York City at age 81.
The book gave insight to their relationship as well as the way that they developed ideas for recipes, projects and food. ==Foundation== After Beard's death in 1985, Julia Child wanted to preserve his home in New York City as the gathering place that it had been during his life.
Barrows & Co., revised in 1963 and 1985 Cook It Outdoors (1941) M.
It is preserved as a gathering place where the press and general public could appreciate the talents of emerging and established chefs. In 1986, the James Beard Foundation was established in Beard's honor to provide scholarships to aspiring food professionals and champion the American culinary tradition which Beard helped create.
Of Beard’s “most significant romantic attachments” was his “lifetime companion” of thirty years, Gino Cofacci, who was given an apartment in Beard’s townhouse in the will and died in 1989, and Beard’s former cooking school assistant Carl Jerome.
"Since its inception in 1991, the James Beard Foundation Scholarship Program has awarded over $4.6 million in financial aid to a variety of students—from recent high school graduates, to working culinary professionals, to career changers.
He was cremated and his ashes scattered over the beach in Gearhart, Oregon, where he spent summers as a child. In 1995, Love and Kisses and a Halo of Truffles: Letters from Helen Evans Brown was published.
The foundation also publishes the James Beard Foundation Restaurant Directory, a directory of all chefs who have presented a meal at the Beard House or participated in one of the foundation's outside fundraising events. The foundation was affected by scandals; in 2004 its head, Leonard Pickell, resigned and was imprisoned for grand larceny and in 2005 the board of trustees resigned.
The foundation also publishes the James Beard Foundation Restaurant Directory, a directory of all chefs who have presented a meal at the Beard House or participated in one of the foundation's outside fundraising events. The foundation was affected by scandals; in 2004 its head, Leonard Pickell, resigned and was imprisoned for grand larceny and in 2005 the board of trustees resigned.
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